Zack Martin has certainly caught the attention and gained the respect of his peers. In just his rookie season, The 2014 first-round pick made the Associate Press All-Pro team, making him the first Cowboys rookie in 45 years to do so. He’s only gotten better since, and has dominated those in front of him. In 2016, he went against Gerald McCoy of the Buccaneers, who has a knack for whipping guards’ tails, but left the game in awe at just how good Martin is.

McCoy took to the Player’s Tribune to recant the best five lineman he’s played against. Names like Trent Williams, Marshal Yanda, Kelechi Osmele, Davin Joseph and Carl Nicks made the list along with Martin.

When McCoy began to talk about Martin, here is what he led with:

“I think Zack Martin is the best interior lineman in football. Period.”

Those are hefty words coming from one of the games best interior defensive lineman, but once McCoy goes into detail about going one-on-on with Martin, even the reader has to respect Martin’s game.

“He basically plays the guard position with the patience of a tackle, which is pretty unique. Most interior lineman jump off the line and try and punch you right off the snap. But Zack is very patient. He’s not rattled by anything. You can head-fake, stab and grab, chop — none of it works becasue he doesn’t bite. He just sits back and waits for you to come to him, like a tackle would.”

On the Cowboys’ first offensive possession against the Bucs in 2016, McCoy learned the margin for error against Martin is very small the hard way. He talks about an eight-yard gain by Ezekiel Elliott, not the sexiest of plays to a blind eye. However, if you watch McCoy and Martin, you’ll notice at first McCoy has the advantage, then in an instant Martin drives him backward opening a lane for Zeke.

“I got off the ball fast and I had Zack knocked back on his heels. It was an inside run play, and I got nosy and I looked into the A-gap. I was thinking I was about to drop Zeke in the backfield — or at least set one of my teammates up for a TFL.

But as soon as I jumped inside, Zeke jumped into the B-gap. That peek inside was that little advantage Zack needed to reset himself and lock me down in the A-gap, and Zeke ran through the B-gap for a big gain.”

Martin’s intelligence and strength is what has allowed him to be selected to three straight Pro Bowls and two First-Team All-Pro nods. Since entering the NFL, he’s been a terror for defensive lineman and basically anyone on defense when he’s pulling. The respect he’s earned around the league is steadily rising. He went from unranked in the NFL Top 100, to 58 in 2017.

He also has another thing coming his way, money. He and the Cowboys have tabled contract talks until the end of the season, but a deal will likely be done between the two considering the success the team has had since his draft day in 2014.

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